Hello everyone, I'm happy that I found this forum, I hope that I can learn some new and helpful things about basic everyday living with the awful burden of allergies, and especially what I can do to make my home more allergen free.

Ever since I was a child, I've had awful allergies (including atopic dermatitis/hives). As of right now, I am in a particular state of allergy hell, as of late my symptoms (mostly skin related) have escalated to an extreme and it's practically unbearable. The hives/dermatitis/eczema or what and the hell ever it is has gone out of control.

I've been tested twice, three times on thursday lol, and the skin allergy test caused my back to look like an astrological chart, lol. I was allergic to practically every airborne/environmental allergen (especially dust-mites which is what I'm struggling with now it seems?).

My skin is EXTREMELY SENSITIVE. I have a very bad case (as of late) of Atopic Dermatitis/Eczema and my exposure to allergens not only cause it to flare, but produce excess hives as well. I'm literally covered at the moment, worse then ever before.

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear you aren't feeling so well. Whilst I hep someone with more expertise can chime in, I do have a few suggestions on making your home a safer place for you. Without knowing exactly what your allergies are, some of these may not apply.

- Wash everything in a very mild detergent - chemicals in detergents can aggravate eczema/dermatitis
- Place mite covers on your matters and pillow, and wash those pillow cases every day if you can! Wash your bedding very frequently.
- Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum, with a really good HEPA vacuum. (Or get rid of the carpet entirely - we're saving up to do this in our house soon.)
- Get an air purifier for your bedroom
- Keep your windows shut to prevent pollens, dust, and moulds from entering your home
- Dust your house frequently with a damp cloth, not a feather duster (which just scatters the dust)
- Change your furnace filter monthly and have your furnace cleaned annually. We also learnt that spraying non-stick cooking spray (i.e. PAM) on the intake side of the furnace filter will turn any cheap filter into a high efficiency one (or close to it) and we've noticed a huge improvement with that - the filters look disgusting when we change them. Electrostatic furnace filters are beyond our budget right now, but they are amazing if you can afford it.
- Use mild soap in the shower - we use it on our hair too since most shampoos irritate my skin, especially during an eczema reaction.

Best of luck. Once you can get things under control for a bit things will get easier. Let us know what precautions you are taking and perhaps other members will have some better suggestions. Take care!

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